Local skier wins X Games gold in Aspen, Colorado

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. - A swell of emotion swept the room as Chris Goepper and 20 others watched his son, Nick take gold in the Men’s Slopestyle competition at the X Games Aspen in Colorado.

“We were quite pleased and very proud,” Chris Goepper said of his and his wife’s reaction after their son's Sunday win.

“He was ecstatic and relieved and extremely excited,” Goepper added of Nick's own reaction in a brief conversation on the phone.

Nick, 18, who lives in rural Indiana, began skiing at the age of 5 and practices regularly at Perfect North Slopes in Lawrenceburg, Chris said.

“Nick hated skiing right away, until he realized he could do it,” Chris Goepper joked, “Once he realized he could jump and do tricks, it was all over.”

Tom Price, Ski School administrator at Perfect North Slopes, designed the train park where Nick regularly practices while at home. He described Slopestyle as a series of rails and jumps a skier will utilize to perform a variety of technically challenging maneuvers.

“There were three sections of rail at the top [of the course] and after that four jumps right in a row,” Price said.

Judges score based on the best combinations of tricks a competitor can do in the set up, Price added. Nick won his X Game event with 94 out of a possible 100 points. Each participant was given three runs on the slope.

“It’s really cool,” Price said of seeing Nick, someone he remembers from Perfect North Slopes since Nick was 10 years old, win the competition that he watched on television on Sunday.